


Ghosting

by actual_sewer_rat



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, i don't know what else to put, nico as an antihero kinda, nico kills
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-02
Updated: 2019-07-11
Packaged: 2020-06-03 00:06:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 20,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19452304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/actual_sewer_rat/pseuds/actual_sewer_rat
Summary: So Nico finds Will cheating on him, half the camp knows about it, and he decides to go to one of his father's safe houses in Happy Harbor for a bit.Happens around the burning mazeI wrote this originally on wattpadBut I found this place so here it is





	1. Chapter 1

Nico is 15, with Will being 16.

N I C O

I was walking to the Apollo cabin to ask Will if he wanted to go into town to watch a circus act, which was something I've never seen before and I really wanted to see it and it was Will and I's 1 year anniversary. And I wanted to go to the circus with him.

Being with him made me feel the happiest I've ever been, ever since Bianca died. Probably even before that. 

I guess I wasn't paying attention, and I bumped into someone. 

"Ah- Sorry." I looked up and saw Jason. He looked worried about something. "Jason, what's wrong?" His eyes looked panicked for a second.

"Nico... Do you love Will?" I nodded quickly.

"Yep! He's probably the reason I'm still here." He looked pained.

"Are you going somewhere with him anytime soon?" I nodded.

"We're gonna go to a 'circus'."

"...Why don't me and Piper go with you? Like a double-date?" I shrugged.

"I'll ask Will. You'll have to buy your own tickets, though." I smiled and continued on, waving at him. He gave me a sad look. I wonder what happened. I walked up to the Apollo cabin. Will takes the night shifts while the other campers take the day shifts or teach the archery classes at this time, so he should be the only one there. I creeped through in case he was sleeping. I heard someone talking, which confused me. I creeped closer to the room where the campers sleep. I held my ear to the door and listened.

"Ah... We should... really stop... Jason said that Nico... Would be coming over soon." It was Will's voice. He was breathing heavily. Was that... another person's breathing as well? The door was slightly cracked open. I couldn't see through it now, so I opened it a bit more and looked through. 

I held my hands over my mouth. Will was sitting on his bed, his shirt off. Some girl was on his lap, her shirt off as well. Actually, she was wearing something over her chest. Will's hands. She was attractive, probably a child of Aphrodite. Short dark brown hair that was almost black, tanned skin with a few freckles. 

My eyes watered. I backed up, letting out a small whimper catching their attention. I heard them move to get dressed and I ran for the shadows and was in my cabin in a split second. I stand there for a second, trying to not cry. Finally, I walk over to put the Hades cabin on lock down so... So if I wanted to kill myself I can. Finally, I let out a sob. I scream and shout at nothing, at Will, knocking things over and making a mess. 

Everything hurt.

There was a knock on the door. Not waiting for a response, they spoke.

"Nico... Please answer the door." I got angry again. Is this why Jason was upset? I didn't want to see Will right now. I silently crept over to the back window and crawled out. I made my way stealthy farther away so I could see who was at the porch. Will and one of Will's friends. I looped around so I was at the Zeus cabin. The door was unlocked, so I walked right in. Jason was sleeping in one of the beds. It was almost dark, after all. 

I stalked over to his bed, the top bunk, and grabbed the bed posts and jerked it to the side. Despite my size, I was a lot stronger now with the help of... Will. He made sure I was perfectly healthy. Anyway, Jason toppled down, giving a shout of surprise. I crossed my arms and stood over him as he regained his senses.

He looked up at me and immediately winced. "So you found out?" I refrained from kicking him in the face.

"So you did know? I thought you were my friend!" He sighed and stood up.

"I owed her a favor, Nico. I didn't have a cho-" 

"How long has this been going on?" I growled out.

"Since 6 months ago." This time I actually did hit him. I punched him as hard as I could in the face, sending him to the ground.

"Who else knew." He didn't answer. "WHO ELSE KNEW." I shouted at him.

"All of camp half-blood except for almost all of the Hermes cabin, the Ares, Demeter, and the majority of the minor cabins." That meant pretty much all of my friends knew. I glanced at Jason, already seeing the bruise starting to form. He glanced away. I marched towards the front door, and as I was leaving I gave one last warning to Jason, not looking back.

"I wouldn't suggest keeping in contact." I turned slightly to give him one last glare. "I wouldn't want to ruin your reputation any further by giving people the false impression that your still my friend." I opened the door, slammed it shut and began my march down to the arena where I knew Clarisse would be practicing. We had become friends at some point, and she was my 3rd best friend. Will was first, Jason was second. I saw her and someone that she was training saw me with an extremely angry face marching towards them, turned, and ran. She stood there for half a second before turning. She looked surprised to see me. She rushed over to me and immediately gave me a hug, which I returned.

Instantly the anger disappeared and I was sobbing once more.

"H-he... He was ch-cheating on me!" I cried, and she brought me over to a more secluded area. She comforted me as I explained what happened.

"Was I-I not g-good en-nough?" She shushed me softly, patting my back.

"No, that's not why." She continued to comfort me as I cried my heart out. She suddenly stopped after awhile, though. I glanced up at her to see why. She was glaring ahead. I turned to see what she was looking at, and felt like crying even more. There was a small group of my former friends.

Will in the front, surrounded by my friends.

Even Hazel was there. The thought brought more tears to my eyes.

"I think this is not the time." Clarisse growled at them.

"Nico-"

"Why? Why would you do this?" Someone scoffed. I looked over to the person and was met with brown eyes. It was the girl.

"Because your hilarious. Acting like your part of the group, when you're not. Your just some little freak who couldn't even keep one person happy. You're so selfish." 

Clarisse stood up in front of me and got in her face. "Bitch, if you don't back the fuck up I'll rip that pretty face of yours right off which seems like the only reason people like you." She growled, and instantly the girl backed up.

I looked to Will for him to defend me, but he just stood there. Looking guilty. I looked away.

"R-right. W-why w-would you-u def-defend someone as-as useless as me?" I started breathing faster. I was vaguely aware I was having a panic attack. 

Out of instinct, I looked around for the nearest shadow. When I spotted one by a tree, I sprinted towards it, quickly disappearing despite hearing distant shouting.

I went to a town that my father told me to go when the camp stopped caring. How did he know?

I arrived in the town. I think it was called Happy Harbor? I don't know. I looked around. I was in an alley, hidden away from the citizens of the town there was a mountain that I could see behind the buildings. I calmed myself down before I realized I didn't have any money or anything. I cleaned myself up a little bit and walked out of the alley.

And crashed right into someone. We both fell. After blinking and sitting up, someone was over me trying to help me up. It was a girl with red hair and similar eyes. She held her hand out to me.

"Sorry about my friend. He's always like that." I heard someone yell in protest, but I just stood up on my own. She was with 3 other people. A guy with also red hair and 2 guys with black hair. One of them had sunglasses on.

"It's fine. I probably should have checked if anyone was rounding the corner." I was still slightly upset, so my Italian accent was peaking through. I tried hiding my hand, which was slightly bloody from punching Jason, from their view. Sunglasses, unfortunately, did notice.

"What happened to your hand?" I shrugged. Time for more lies.

"I probably scraped it when I fell." He hesitantly nodded his head.

"I'm Megan. It's nice to meet you." She held her hand out for me. I scowled. 

"No thanks." The other guy with black hair took offense to this.

"What's up with you? She's just trying to be nice." I rolled my eyes. She reminded me of Hazel. And Hazel lied to me.

"Just because she seems nice doesn't mean that she's not gonna be rude later." He got in my face at this. She looked sad at this. Redhead guy was instantly trying to make her feel better, while glaring at me. Sunglasses was trying to calm the big S down.

"Don't talk about her like you know her." He towered over me. While he might have been as tall as Jason, I was still as short as ever.

As if cutting the mood like butter, the sound of spooky scary skeletons rang out. I pulled out my phone, glaring at the screen as it read Alecto. She always calls me if my dad needs anything.

"Are you there?"

"Why of course, my obedient servant." She growled at that.

"Your father wants you to stay with Danarious, a son of Thanatos." 

"Do I really have a choice?"

"If you want a roof over your head." I scowled.

"Fine. But I'm leaving if I want."

"I will send you the address." I rolled my eyes, and hung up.

"Apologize to Megan. Now." 

"And will you apologize to me if she ever double-crosses you?" I looked her in the eyes and suddenly saw Hazel's hurt face. I let down my mask at that moment for a split second and it looked like only sunglasses noticed.

"Connor. I think that's enough." He only glared at me more, and I glared at him more. 

"No. He needs to learn that its rude to act that way." I scoffed.

"And you intend to teach me by acting like a thug and trying to scare me?" He flinched slightly at this. I noticed his fists clenching. I rolled my eyes.

"Oh, go ahead and try it. But make it snappy. I've gotta go." He glared at me, and I glared back. After a moment of silence I scoffed and turned around and started walking towards the address Alecto gave me.

He didn't follow me to try to actually punch me, which I guess is good. After a few twists and turns I arrived at an old warehouse. I walked over and opened it up. I closed the door after me and called out to anyone.

"Hey, Danarious. You here?" There was the sound of a click and light suddenly flooded the warehouse, and some guy walked out of a room on the second floor. Stereotypical warehouse, it seems.

Danarious seemed to be just a few years older than me, probably 3 or 4 years. Like his father, he had darker skin than I, but his hair was a dark brown. His eyes twinkled in excitement when he saw me, with a huge smile on his face like a puppy. He was definitely taller than me, probably 6 ft tall. Despite being a son of Thanatos, he wore a hazmat suit. I looked at him in confusion.

"Why are you wearing a-" I started but he quickly cut me off.

"Hazmat suit? Good question! I like science! I make uh, cheaper products for the people of Gotham that live in the poor parts of the city, and a few of my guys ship it out to them. Right now I'm working on a few of these products... " I had started to walk around. He was a chatterbox.

"So where am I going to be staying?" He started to make his way down the stairs at such a fast rate I'm surprised he didn't fall. He's more hyper than... Leo. He probably didn't know, but he would've gone with his friends.

"Right over here!" He pointed, and walked over to a door. "I don't have that much space, so you'll have to stay in the storage room. It's not so much a storage room but a space to put equipment. I set up a bed for you. I normally sleep upstairs in my 'lab', as I spend most of my time here. You can come and go as you please. My guys come every Monday evening to take the stuff to Gotham. If I'm not here, let them in anyway. They can be trusted." He rambled, and I kept nodding.

After he disappeared back into his lab. I sat down on the makeshift bed that was prepared for me and looked outside. I'll come back to the Hades cabin at night and grab everything I needed. It was getting dark. It was Sunday, so that would mean people would be over tomorrow evening. Should I go back to school? Probably. That would give me something to do. I'll try to apply as soon as possible. Maybe I'll start next week. I don't know how long it takes, but either way I'll try to go for next week. 

I looked around for something to write with. In the end, I didn't find anything. I won't be long anyway. I stepped in the shadows and disappeared into the shadows and within seconds I was in my cabin. 

No one was here, but things were cleaned up. I looked in my closet and grabbed my duffle bag, and started stuffing it with everything I had. Without thinking, I grabbed the sweater that was once Will's. After a moment of hesitation, I put it in my bag. I grabbed the bag and stepped back into the shadows and was back in my new home. I laid down and tried to sleep.

I was exhausted, so I fell asleep quickly.

When I woke up, it was kind of cold. I didn't have a blanket, though.

I wanted to take a shower but didn't know where it was.I grabbed a towel and a change of clothes as I walked over to Danar- I'm just gonna call him Dan. Anyway, I walked over to Dan's lab and knocked lightly on the door. There was a bit of shuffling before a voice called out "What do you need?".

"Where's your shower?"

"Smallest door to the right! I had to make one out of a closet, but it's just as good as a regular shower." I thanked him and went over to the door and opened it and saw a small shower. There was no sink or toilet, though. Those were downstairs, I assumed.

I showered and got dressed, and started to head towards the front door.

"I'm heading out!" I hollered. I heard a shouted 'OK' so I walked out the front door and into town.

I made my way over to the school to get enrolled.

I walked into the school, heading towards the office and I tried dodging all the students. Keyword: tried. I was almost immediately nearly knocked down. I turned to glare at the guy that did, only to be surprised to see the guy from yesterday. I quickly started glaring at him, though.

"We have got to stop meeting like this." I looked at him suspiciously, but nodded. There was only one other person that looked at me weirdly that were hanging around him. It was a girl with a long blonde ponytail. 

"Hey. You're the kid that made M'gan cry, right?" I noticed how she pronounced the name differently, but quickly brushed it aside. I glared at her.

"The girl with the red hair? Yeah." I said barely missing a beat. She glared right back. She opened her mouth to say something, but the bell rang. She paused before continuing. 

"You better watch what you say." I scowled as they passed me by. 

I took a deep breath before walking into the office and enrolled. (I have no idea how it works sooooooooo)

So, it was official. I start school next week. I walked out of the school and decided to walk around the city and buy any needed school supplies. After a while it started getting dark but I wanted to get a better view of the city, so I did the safe and fun way to do that: going straight to the roof.

I climbed a fire escape and hopped up to taller buildings from there. I soon found the tallest building. I sat on the edge and looked at the stars above. I saw what looked like part of Zoe's constellation in the distance.

I enjoyed the silence for a bit, before I heard what sounded like a child running very fast but then stopping. I quickly turned, my hand on the hilt of my sword. There was wind in my face, but there was no one there. I heard someone whispering faintly, but other than that, silence. There was nothing on the roof but the door. I swiftly knelt down and grabbed the silver dagger from my boot. I silently creeped around the corner, expecting to find either a monster or a stupid kid trying to jump from roof to roof.

The whispering got closer, and I could slightly make out what they were saying.

"KF! Sh! Theres someone on the roof, right? Don't be so loud!" More frantic whispering, and I stuck to the wall and I was silent as I held the dagger, ready to strike if anything popped out to me. "KF! You need to listen to me! You need to get out of there! They heard you and are right next to you! They might have a weapon." It got more hushed, and I glanced around looking for anything that seemed weird, but couldn't make out anything strange in the darkness.

I decided to strike first, since it sounded like a human. Quick as I could, I reached around and grabbed onto the person. I got a handful of clothing, and brought it close to me. 

I locked eyes with a pair of green, looked them up and down, was confused, and let them go. They stood there for a moment, stunned. I looked around for anything weirder. Nope. Nothing. It was just some weirdo in a costume. I knelt down and slipped the dagger back into my shoe.

"It isn't safe at night, anywhere. You should head home, kid." Although we appeared to be the same age, he was taller than me and gave off the feeling of goofing around.

He looked baffled at this, but quickly straightened his posture.

"Uh, excuse me, citizen," I raised a brow at this. "But it is late and dangerous. I can escort you home if you wish." I rolled my eyes. 

"Let me guess. You wanna be a hero." He nodded after a moment, and I narrowed my eyes at him. "Being a hero is so over-rated. You go to extreme lengths to protect people, but in the end they don't want you around them." I looked him straight in the eye and saw I was starting to get to him, "Because in the end, you're not like them." I whispered, and began to walk past him to the edge.

"How do you know?" I stopped.

"Because someone that is different is always chased away eventually." I looked down and saw that there was no light in the space between the buildings.

"See you soon, Flash Boy." And I jumped off the edge, fully intending to jump into the shadows and travel away.

However, the fates decided to catch me in their yarn at the last second. Both metaphorically and literally. Before I could escape the light I was caught by a rope, and began swinging. 

I looked up at who caught me, annoyed. It was a boy slightly younger than me.

As I swung, I noticed that there was some shadows within reach if I swung just a little bit more. So I did.

"Hey! Stop moving! I'm gonna pull you up!" I didn't bother responding. The second I was in the shadows, I disappeared leaving the cord swinging and the kids confused. They probably wouldn't rat me out. They wanted to be heroes, after all.

I landed on my bed. I looked through my bag for a sweater I could wear because I don't have a blanket. I felt familiar fabric, which I slowly pulled out. It was Will's sweater. I took off my aviator jacket and pulled on Will's white and yellow sweater. I curled up on my bed and tried to hold off the tears that threatened my vision.

After a while of sitting and crying, I eventually fell into a dreamless sleep.

The next few days went by smoothly with me mainly sitting around moping and being generally sad.

Before I knew it, it was Sunday. I decided to go over to Dan's lab and let him know that I'll be going to school.

I walked over to his door, wrapped up in the blanket I finally decided to buy, and knocked.

"Yeah, what's up?"

"I'm gonna start going to the local school starting tomorrow. Just wanted to let you know." I heard an 'ok', which was closely followed by a yelp and a string of not-really-swear-words.

I rolled my eyes and decided to shower and go out. 

Pretty soon I was walking towards the store to stock up on candy and junk food. I had plenty of money that I got from my father. There is a reason why they call him the Wealthy One.

When I walked into the store, I wrapped the mist around the security cameras so it would filter me out as some random civilian. 

As I was debating if I would want gummy worms or bears, I felt someone tap my shoulder. I turned and saw it was ponytail and the Megan girl.

"Hello. I don't think we properly introduced ourselves. I'm Megan Morse and this is my friend Artemis Crock. We noticed that you might be going to school with us and thought it might be a good idea we got to know each other, and be friends. What's your name?" I looked at them both, trying to figure out if they might be trying to make fun of me or not.

Ponytail had a bored look on her face, while Megan had an interested look on her face. I sighed. If she was anything like Hazel then she won't give up.

"Nico. Look, I don't know if you got the message yet but I'm not looking for friends right now. So sorry if you thought I would be fun to hang out with, but thats not the case." She looked sad once more at my words. Artemis was just frowning.

I grabbed both bags of candy and walked past them. "See you around." I didn't hear a response, but I kept walking.

This is when things got tricky. I only had drachmas. I walked up to one of the employees, and quickly snapped my fingers, and the slight feeling of a wave assured me that the mist is in affect. 

"Hey. Would you mind paying for these? I will pay you back." They nodded in a slight daze and took the shopping basket from me. Once they swiped the few items I wanted, they paid for it. They turned to me once they were finished. I smiled at them and gave them a golden drachma.

"This never happened. You bought this for yourself. On your way home from work, you saw this coin and it caught your eye. You took it. You never saw my face. When I am completely out of your sight, you will forget ever seeing my face." They nodded, and I walked away.

As I walked out of the store, I went over to a bench and sat down. I pulled out my phone, which I had powered down, and decided to let Clarisse know I haven't killed myself or anyone else yet. 

After a minute it turned on, and I noticed that I had 27 missed calls, 4 from Clarrise, 2 from Jason, 3 from Percy, 8 from Hazel, and the remaining 10 from Will. I frowned. I checked the voicemails they left me, and there was only 9. Clarisse left one, which I was not surprised by, but Hazel left 4.

Will also left 4, but I didn't really want to listen to those right now. 

Tapping Clarisse's voicemail first, I was surprised that it lasted over a minute.

"Hey, Nico. Clarisse. Know that you can talk to me anytime, alright? I'm here for you. Anyway, I thought you should be caught up to date with the recent news. Percy left for like, a day, then came back with a guy that claimed to be Apollo and some kid named Meg. They might try to fix the whole missing camper situation? I don't know. But when he learned about what Will did, he started freaking out. He asked where you were, but no one knew. Any way, I'll call you next time something major happens. Hope you feel better about this soon, and if you want me to go where ever you are, I'll be there asap. Bye." Then it ended. What would Apollo do if we met? 

I tapped on the first one for Hazel. 

"Nico? Please answer. It's Hazel. Please know that I'm sorry, ok? I-I meant to tell you, but then the girl- she didn't want to be called mean things, and her brother, who, kinda like Jason, was roman. He died under our care because of Bryce, and she guilt tripped us, and I think she had something on Jason- so I didn't say anything. Please- forgive me. I- I just want to see you happy aga-" I stopped the voicemail and powered my phone down again and stood up. I looked around. I didn't see anyone around, although one squirrel was staring at me weirdly. 

I grabbed my bags and quickly walked down the street to the abandoned house.

Heyyyyy

Sorry if this is a little fast-paced 

I wanted to write a story that made me sad but

I'm terrible at this so

jghdfiogjfiglds

Sorry for any typos or weird stuff that might seem important but then vanishes 

There has been a lot of editing

Bye


	2. Chapter 2

N I C O

I pulled my backpack over my shoulder and I walked out the door.

As I walked down the street, I noticed a stray cat following me. It was one of those blue-grey cats, although it was dirty and quite thin. I frowned and crouched down next to it. It seemed a little wary, so I held my hand out for it to sniff and realize I'm not gonna harm it. After a moment of awkwardly sitting there waiting for the cat to scratch me and run off, it surprisingly rubbed its face against my hand.

I gently pet its head and checked the time. (I'm gonna go off the time my school starts)

7:27. I quickly stood up and started walking towards the school, but the cat kept following me. Soon I was just around the corner of the school, and the cat was still behind me. Shit, did it do that thing called imprinting? Probably not. They're small for a cat, but they aren't a kitten.

I sighed. I took off the huge backpack and unzipped it and held open the front pocket for them to climb into. After curiously sniffing the bag and wandering inside, I pulled the backpack up, trying to be careful to not hurt the cat. I zipped it almost all the way shut so the small cat could breathe.

I wandered into my first class, sat down at my marked seat, and gently set my bag down next to me. I looked at who else was in the noisy classroom and saw that ponytail and sir freckles glares a lot were here too.

Freckles was staring at me suspiciously and ponytail snapped her fingers in front of him to get his attention back to their conversation.

The cat was quiet during class, so when I had to grab something I also put my hand in her face. I'm just gonna call her a girl. She needs a name. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm... how about...

Caterine. Like Catherine, but with no h.

Anyway, she gently kicked my hand, and purred slightly. I silently sighed in relief.

The day went by good. No one talked to me, or even noticed I was there. Lunch rolled around, and I got the meatiest meal I could find, along with a bottle of water. I looked around searching for anyone watching me, and saw no one. I slipped out the door to the lunch room and into a room without anyone in it.

I took the backpack off my shoulders and opened up my backpack for Caty (Like Cathy) to climb out if she wished. I took a smaller portion of my meal for me and gave her the majority of my food, taking out anything that wasn't meat, and filled up a spot on the styrofoam tray with water, and she soon crawled out and began to feast. Soon she was done, and I played with her a little bit before the bell rang. I quickly threw away the trash, and Caterine slunk back into my bag.

The continued as normal, the only difference being me walking on eggshells with my backpack.

I saw the 'Megan squad'-something I decided to call the few students that went out of their way to glare at me, since I was as invisible as can be.

I walked home in peace, stopping briefly at a Petsmart to get cat supplies.

I got cat food, a dish for the food, a small bucket, cat shampoo, a litter box, cat litter, and cat toys.

I put my backpack on my front side and opened the front, allowing Caterine to crawl out onto my shoulders, and I replaced the empty space in the bag with the Petsmart supplies. We continued on, with me having to be in a sort-of uncomfortable position with my head tilted forward stiffly so she could rest peacefully around my shoulders, with my backpack as extra support of course.

Besides a few strangers giving me confused looks, the walk back was uneventful.

(This is how we clean my dogs and my cats always get away if we give them a bath sooooo)

When I walked into my new 'home' and set down my stuff, setting the stuff up to wash 'my' new cat. I set her in the small tub I got, and ran some warm water into it, holding Caty down from jumping out. I pet her to try to calm her down. Once she was soaked, I poured a little bit of soap on her, washing everywhere but her head.

After I rinsed her off and dumped out any water, I wrapped her in towels so she doesn't get cold.

After that I decided to alert Dan that I got a cat-or rather a cat got me. I walked up to the door and knocked. After a surprised shout, the door creaked open a bit and out popped Dan's head.

"By the way, I got a cat. Just so you know." He made a face.

"Ok, just make sure they don't wander in." I agreed, and set up a little cat bed for her in my 'room'.

After half an hour of finally setting everything up, I decided to walk around town. 'My' new cat had fallen asleep.

I walked down to the park, sitting down on a bench in the shade. I heard people around me, of course. This was a public park, after all. The voices sounded vaguely familiar, but I focused on the lake in front of me. That is, until someone was suddenly sitting next to me, rolling over the back of the bench.

"Hey! Weird seeing you here." I looked over and saw sunglasses from the day I bumped into him and his friends. Megan and angry boyfriend were here too, although angry guy was glaring at me from the side.

"Hello again! We noticed that you go to same school as us. I think we got off to a rough start, and I wanted to show you that even though some of my friends might have been a bit rude-" She glanced at a n g r y. "-we're not. So, if you ever want to study or hang out with us, we usually go to the public library on Mondays after school for an hour." I nodded at her.

"I'll keep that in mind." - Now, if I had been paying more attention, this would have been the moment I would have noticed that while she was distracting me, sunglasses had placed a bug in my phone.-

"Do you want my number? Just in case." I shook my head.

"I don't use my phone that often. Gets me unwanted attention." I took a glance around, as if my even mentioning of technology would case a monster to pop out of no where and try to strangle me or something. They noticed this, of course, but I didn't quite care.

I stood up suddenly, obviously surprising them.

"Well, I got to go. This sure has been awkward, have a good day." And tried to walk away further into the woods. Key word: tried.

"Hey! This fell out of your pocket." I turned to see sunglasses handing me my old flip phone. I frowned. I don't remember it falling out. I took it.

"Thank yo-" My phone suddenly started ringing, thoroughly startling everyone. I looked and saw Hazel. I scowled before answering, and started walking away once again.

"Hello?" I growled, glaring at nothing.

"NICO! Thank the gods! I thought I would never hear from you again! Where are you?" She paused. I blinked back hot tears.

"Thats all you have to say? Honestly, I would have pegged you for an apologetic person. I guess I was wrong, though. Very wrong about all that you would do. I guess I just ended up being everyone's pawn." I could feel her wincing.

"Nico, listen,-"

"Fuck you. I trusted you. You're my sister, and you stabbed me in the back. After that place-" I shuddered. "-I thought you guys were my friends. But you guys just rescued me for information-not because you actually cared." I sneered. "I hate you." I quickly hung up.

I loved her because she's my sister, but-further that that, I hate her guts. At the moment, I hated a lot of people. Once again, my heart was full of hatred. I didn't like this feeling.

"Do you want to set things right? Rebalance the scales? I can offer you the power to do so." I turned to see a woman standing there. I recognized her almost immediately. It was Aphrodite-except her appearance wasn't constantly shifting. Her looks were changing, but at about the same rate of those lava lamp thingies.

"Who are you?" I asked. This wasn't Aphrodite. She was wearing a red leather jacket, and there was a whip at her side. Aphrodite also didn't ride a motorcycle. Although, she was filing her nails. With a dagger.

She chuckled. "I'm Nemesis, darling. Now, do you want the power to set the scales right?"

"Why?" I said after a moment. Why would a goddess suddenly want me to get revenge? Even if that was what she ruled.

"That is because you" She paused her filing and pointed her knife at me. "Are the perfect person to do so. You're a demigod, for starters, so you have experience. You have been wronged severely, you're currently unaffiliated, and you know that justice is not being dished out soon enough. If you accepted my offer, you would have your abilities amplified, to a point, and you wouldn't die, all with this helmet on you." She held up a greek helmet.

"I don't know." She nodded. She spun the helmet, which turned into a locket.

"Well, I'll give you time to think about it. Here's my number. Just open it when you decide." She tossed it to me, which I caught. I nodded.

I looked down at the silver locket, and by the time I looked back up, she was gone.

3 weeks.

That's how it took for someone to find me.

At school, the Megan squad were obviously trying to be nicer to me. I brought Caty with me multiple times, and I have yet to be caught. I was walking out of the school on a Monday when Megan and her friends stopped me.

"Nico! Why don't you come study with us today?" She tried this every Monday. I had come to learn all their names, and I was about to politely decline when I heard my name.

"NICO DI ANGELO! Thank the high mountain that we finally found you! I just wanted to talk to you before we continued the trials, but you know how hard you are to find?" I turned to see strangers. Some random teenagers. One was a girl in a green dress, with weird glasses. She had golden rings. The other one had curly hair and flabby muscles. He wore a led zeppelin t-shirt, and had a bow and a quiver of arrows.

I raised an eyebrow and crossed my arms.

"And who are you?" He cried out.

"Alas, this is the mighty Meg! And I, am reduced to the mortal Lester Papadopoulos." I turned my heels in the other direction, and started walking away. He ran up to my face, with a stupid grin on his face.

"I am Apollo. And this is Meg." The girl waved. I looked back to him. So the stories of Apollo being mortal were true.

"Ok. What do you want from me? You're not going to bring me back to Will, are you? And you better not be apologizing for him, or anyone else." I started glaring at him when I mentioned Will. He quickly took a big step back, and I crossed my arms. I turned to glance back at the mortals. They looked very confused. I rolled my eyes, and started ushering the new comers in the direction of my 'house'.

"So, why did you come here?" Suddenly Apollo got serious.

"Well... I couldn't ignore what happened with you two any longer, and I wanted to come talk to you and see how you were before we left to the... Labyrinth." I tripped over air for a second.

"You can't be serious. You'll get lost, and you'll die."

"I know, I know. But I was wondering... Since you're more familiar with it-"

"Still, no. Go find Grover or Percy or just plain someone else. Anything else."

Apollo just now noticed that his friend wasn't paying attention and pulled her back in.

"Camp Jupiter will be attacked in 6 days. We'll try to find Grover or someone else. Thanks anyway. And once again, I'm sorry for what Will did-"

"Whose Will and what did he do?" I stopped walking, immediately tensing when the girl started asking questions.

"I think its time for me to go home. Safe travels." With that, I slipped into an alley and shadow traveled the block to my room, just to get out of that awkward conversation. I laid on my bed for a moment, then Caty came over and crawled on my stomach. Her tiny feet sunk right into my soft stomach, making me cough and push her off.

I grabbed the laser pointer I got and made her chase it around, chuckling. After a moment, I got up and headed back outside. She followed me, quickly scaling my leg and into my waiting arms. I laughed lightly at this.

I walked down and over to the park, Caty never once protesting. I made sure to stick around the shadows. Caty didn't seem to care about the cold darkness.

I was sitting on a bench as I saw the children play on the playground, the parents chatting with eachother.

Soon they left as it got darker, but I stayed. I thought back to what Apollo said. They're really gonna try to navigate that twisted maze? I leaned back and looked up at the sky. Why did he feel bad for what Will did? He's a god. Or did being mortal change him that much? I didn't understand. If I did the same to Will, Hades wouldn't care.

I was snapped out of my thoughts when I heard someone screaming hysterically. I looked around and saw some mortal running for their life from a surprisingly large hellhound. Not as big as Mrs. O'leary, but barely the size of a van.

I quickly put Caty high on a tree.

"Give me a second. Stay here. I'll be right back." She meowed, but stayed.

I speed-walked over to where the mortal was walking to. I almost sighed and stopped when I saw it was that weird guy in a yellow suit. His leg was scratched pretty badly, but luckily he was smart enough to tear off a bit of his sleeve to stop the majority of the blood. He was slowing down, though.

Since he must of been apart of some organization, I made a mask of shadows on the lower half of my face (since I didn't want my vision to be blocked even slightly).

I stopped right next to him in the shadows of a tree and pulled out my sword. As he passed me, I stepped forward and grabbed the back of his suit, getting a yelp from him.

The hellhound quickly tried to turn, but almost fell over as he was going quickly.

The mortal tried to move away, but I held tight. I pushed him slightly behind me as the hellhound charged. At the last moment I let go of the mortal and slashed the hound as hard as I could.

It worked like a charm, we were showered in golden dust.

I sheathed my sword and turned back to the boy.

"Are there any more following you?" He shook his head. I grabbed his wrist and started dragging him over to a park table, and sat him down.

"Stay." It was a bit awkward giving him orders and pulling him around since he was taller than me (most people are), but I still did.

I walked over to the tree I put Caty in and held out my arms, and she soon lept down and sat on my shoulders.

Going back over to the mortal, I could tell he was nervous.

"Let me see your leg." He hesitantly held his leg out to me with a wince. I unwrapped the fabric and saw a 2 shallow gashes on the side of his right calf. I reached into the shadows and grabbed a water bottle from my room.

"Hold still." He nodded, tensing up as I poured water over his wound.

"Do you have anyone you can contact that can help?" He nodded.

I reached into the shadows once again and grabbed some gauze and some bandages. I wrapped up his wound and helped him up.

"Do you have a phone or do I have to walk you over to a payphone?"

"Payphone. Whatever that thing was it destroyed it." I nodded, narrowing my eyes.

"Was anyone else with you?" He nodded, but didn't say anything else. I helped him up.

"Can you walk?" He nodded.

We walked over in silence, with only the sound of Caty purring and the sound of the occasional car.

I left him at the payphone, pulling into the shadows to pull out some quarters.

I waited in the shadows of an alley watching what was gonna happen and if anyone was actually gonna show up. Soon enough, however, a gust of wind flowing through the streets and something appeared out of thin air. It looked like a plane, but didn't at the same time.

It suddenly opened and some more teens came out. I recognized one of them as Conner from the Megan team. The other one that came out was a girl with long blonde hair in a green getup.

They helped him into the ship and once again disappeared.

Once they vanished, I slipped into the shadows and was back in my room. I let out a sigh and laid on my bed and fell asleep with Caty purring on my stomach.

Walking into school the next day I was determined to avoid the Megan squad. I didn't want to be involved in any more drama.

In first period, Freckles-Wally- wasn't there. I ignored ponytail, but I could feel her staring at me.

I left that class as quickly as possible.

At lunch I tried to disappear but I noticed that I was being followed. I stopped and turned and saw ponytail try to act casual. She probably underestimated me and thought I wouldn't notice.

I rolled my eyes and continued forward, making a sharp turn down a hall and tried to lose her. When I realized she wouldn't go away, I turned and glared at her. By now everyone was in the cafeteria so there was no one in the hall.

"What do you want?" I glared at her, crossing my arms.

"Where were you last night?" I rolled my eyes. So thats what this is about. I shouldn't have bothered with the mask.

"In my bed, sleeping." With a smirk, I added- "Right next to my cat." She glared. I rolled my eyes.

I sighed. "I really don't have time for this. See you later."

I walked over to the corner, where the shadows were centered, and was about to travel away when I thought of one last bad decision-

"Hope your friend stays off the leg." Then, I was home. So what if my grades drop. I won't live that long anyway.

I laid on my bed, staring at the ceiling. My mind drifted. Will sweater that was still with me. Apollo's trip in the maze. The Megan squad knowing that I know. The locket Nemesis gave me. Did Clarisse know where I am? Is she looking? Is she gonna stay until I say I'm better and I want to hang out? Does Hazel and her friends even care or have they already gotten over my betrayal.

I sighed and covered my face. I was about to take a big nap when I heard the main door creep open. Pretty sure Dan is sleeping at this time. I slunk over to my door, turning off the light and silently opening the door. I looked out across the warehouse and didn't see much out of place. I looked up at Dan's lab and saw a shadow of a person creep in. I frowned, grabbing my dagger and silently walked up to the lab.

Looking inside, I saw a tall man with a black cape on and some weird pointy hat.

I was pretty good at throwing knives but not so good at hand to hand combat. And this guy, with all his strangeness, was most likely mortal.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" I asked, trying to hide the knife for now.

He quickly turned around, and I could see he was wearing some weird superhero suit with a bat symbol. After seeing the emblem I realized he was Batman.

"Who are you?" He asked with a deep voice. He was probably talking to me 'nicely' because I look young.

"Nico. I live here." He looked surprised, but covered it up. He probably wasn't expecting me to be here.

"Do you know what Danarious is doing with this warehouse?" I raised a brow.

"He said he was making a 'product' and selling it in Got Ham or something." He nodded, turning to look at what looked like blue prints on the table, but not fully turning.

"What is he doing?" He glanced over at me.

"He's making poison. Passing off as medicine with a company. Triumvirate Holdings." I felt a surge of anger.

"How many people have died because of what he has done."

"284,736." I nodded. I knew where he slept. He was sleeping now. All the evidence was right here.

"What are you gonna do to him?"

"I'm gonna bring him to the police."

"He deserves so much more than that." I held my breath. "If he's not in here, he should be sleeping in his room down the hall." He nodded, then moved past me and out of the room.

Looking around the room, I felt like I was suffocating.

Everyone lied.

I heard a yelp from the other room and I assumed he had quite the rude awakening. I walked out into the hall, intending to give him one final glare.

I didn't know him that well, but now the police is gonna be crawling around here like ants.

After they left, I started to pack my things. I needed a new place to stay.

Caty rubbed up against my feet as I packed the necessities. AKA everything I have. I took everything that could have my DNA on it and either wiped it down or added it to a pile in a metal dumpster.

Yep, you guessed it, I'm gonna light it on fire. With a glare, I lit the pile on fire. I picked up Caty and started walking away.

I found myself at the park. Classic, I know. Go right back to the place where someone was attacked the previous night.

With my head in my arms, I felt the need to sleep. So I did.

Not the smartest idea, I know, but still. A guys gotta nap sometimes.

I woke up to the dark, and the cold. Looking around, I saw no one. The street lights were the only source of light, with that one building with the night owls.

Caty was sleeping right next to me. I pet her and scratched her chin. She purred and turned her head, still asleep.

"You don't have a place to stay anymore, do you?" I looked up to see my fellow shorty in a costume hanging out in the shadows. Tried to, I guess. He was dressed in bright colors.

"And what does this have to do with you?"

"I may have a place for you to stay. You're not alone. We know you have... abilities. There are more of you." I rolled my eyes.

"Of course there are others. There always is." I stood up, collecting my things, picking up the tired cat and cradling her in my arms. "When you say I'm not alone, who is next to me? They all eventually leave. Maybe you found some great friends, but you're the same as them."

"You can come with me. We're the good guys. The heroes. You can be too."I shook my head.

"I've tried the hero thing. I'm no hero."

Sorry if this chapter seems bad or too full of stuff. I'm trying to make longer chapters, although I'm not so good at the updating frequently. Sorry.


	3. Chapter 3

There is a bit of fOrEsHaDoWiNg in this chapter. Have fun rEeEeEEeEeEeEeeeEE

By the way, I double checked this online, but, to quote the Riordan Wiki, 'Nico can sense death as it happens or when it is coming; when a person close to him dies, it comes as a ringing in the ears.' soon thats about to ImPoRtAnT

Also the time zones-I checked everything and Piper's house is on the west coast, while Happy Harbor is on the east coast. So I'm just gonna guess that dawn is around 6am on the west coast, and at the same time its gonna be 9am on the east coast.

N I C O

After my talk with that kid, I shadow traveled into the school. Best place to hide out for now. Not forever, but enough. I found myself in the men's restroom, on which floor I couldn't determine.

As Caty hopped out of my arms, I rested my back against the wall, taking a deep breath. This is so fucked. 5 weeks ago I had a loving boyfriend that I loved, and who I thought loved me. A whole relationship wiped out in a matter of seconds. Or months? Jason said 7 months ago it started.

Part of me wanted to say fuck this and to waste away, prove to the world that it was my decision and they can't control me.

Hot tears rolled down my face and immediately I tried blinking them away, wiping them away with my sleeves.

The thought of what happened throughout my life sent a bitter taste to my mouth, my heart feeling as if it was being ripped apart with razors.

I slid onto the floor, burying my head into my arms.

I felt something tap my arm. I glanced up and saw Caty looking at me. I sighed, sniffling and reluctantly stood up from my crying session and took her in my arms, leaving the restroom only to find it locked. I got an idea in my head. I reached out my hand, and attempted to manipulate the lock into unlocking by controlling it's shadows. After a minute of concentration I heard a click. Alright. I walked out and shut the door behind me, locking it once again.

The school was kinda freaky at night, but i've seen worse. Walking around the school, I thought of a few isolated places that probably wouldn't be checked as soon as the school opened. The light booth above the auditorium(I'm just basing this off my own school and places I think would be a good place to hide, but i've only just seen that area above my school's auditorium, i've never been inside.), the orchestra and band room, the area above the stage that you have to climb up to, and the locker rooms. Preferably not the last one.

In the end, I chose the stage area. I walked over there, unlocked then relocked the door, and quickly climbed up to the platform above the stage and set up an area for me to sleep.

With Caty curled up beside me, I fell asleep.

I woke up early, with a bad feeling in my gut. Something bad is gonna happen today, and I quickly made sure to sneak down to the locker rooms to take a shower. Checking the time on the way, I saw it was 5:58. Whoever's here this early is crazy.

I kept the majority of my clothes in my locker, and decided to go get them cleaned after school. I walked out to the gym, where I proceeded to get bored and do my homework, which took me quite awhile to do because the words decided to be little shits. I checked the time again. 7:15. Jesus that took awhile.

Looking out the window, I saw that the first person had arrived. It was a man, short and lean. Probably in his early 60's. He had a coffee in his hand and was rushing into the school, holding his bag close. He looked like he was about to pitch a new idea on what type of product to sell.

I scoffed. Probably the principal, or the vice.

I scooped Caty up after I packed everything up, and made sure the doors were locked. After about a minute or 2, there was a sudden wave of teachers and other parts of the staff.

And after about 10 minutes, a few cars pulled up in front of the school and a kid popped out. After another 10, the first round of buses pulled up, along with a few kids that either walked to school or rode a bike. Some cars parked and teens walked out, sometimes with others. I rolled my eyes, deciding this was a good time to leave the gym before the gym teacher comes in and questions me.

I decided to just stick around the stairs, since everyone is scattered around either outside or in the cafeteria.

After peering into my backpack and cooing silently at Caty-who was being just the sweetest little thing I have ever seen-for a few minutes, I noticed some people standing in front of me. I looked up, quickly zipping up my backpack enough so she wouldn't be seen (but could still breathe), I frowned to see the annoying four staring down at me, glaring at me or at the least frowning, and looking very disappointed.

Artemis grabbed my arm and pulled me up, and then started dragging me off to an even more abandoned part of the school, this time being the back of it. Waiting for me was some guy with what appeared to be gills and some weird thing on his back. His almost white hair and pale eyes stood out against his dark skin.

"Is this about me not joining your little pow-wow?" I grumbled, upset about being dragged over here so rudely.

He ignored me and spoke. "Do you understand why we want you to join us?" I glared at him.

"You want to know if I'm gonna turn psycho and try to burn down a few buildings under the cover of night in some weird super villain suit. Hey, heres an idea, maybe I don't wanna be a hero or a villain. Besides, what do you guys have that makes you think I wanna do that sorta thing?"

"You have acted hostilely before and the person you were living with-" I swiftly cut him off.

"That was my only option coming here. I had no idea what he was doing, or who he was working for." I looked away at the slightest mention of his employer. "If my father had known, he wouldn't have even let him stay u... here." I almost slipped up, but I completely ignored the stare he gave me at it. I looked away, obviously guilty. Shit.

"What we-" I heard Connor start to say, but I quickly started to shake Artemis' hand off of me, which had loosened during the interrogation. I briskly walked over to the thin shadows between the dumpsters. Just enough room for me to slip through.

"Hey! Wally, get him!" I should have expected that. He nodded, and was about to go but I quickly flicked my wrist and a small bit of the cement poked up and tripped him. I did the same action, and the bump disappeared. I snickered, and continued on my way to the crevice.

"See you in class." I was about to leave, when Artemis-who I had apparently misjudged-pulled out a big-ass flashlight and pointed it right at me. I hissed, covering my eyes.

"Damnit. Why you gotta do that?" I whined. She rolled her eyes, keeping the light on me. I slung my backpack over my shoulder, stepping out so I wouldn't be cornered.

"How did you trip Wally?"

"How did you know to blind me?" I mocked.

Gills stepped forward and spoke, and I wondered how he was so calm surrounded by these guys. It was torture for me, and I haven't even been here that long.

"Ok, since you decided to try to flee, we will have to talk you to our base. We need to ma..." I stopped paying attention to him when I had a feeling in my gut that something was wrong. Something was coming over here, and quickly. I started feeling uneasy, putting my backpack on all the way. Adrenalin started to pump through me. I focused for any sounds out of the ordinary, looking around for anything strange.

All I got was a group of strangers staring at me-particularly Connor. He narrowed his eyes on me, and all I heard was Gills trying to lecture me or something. I held up my finger, trying to silence him. He continued, ignoring me.

"Shh." I said harshly, straining my ears to hear anything. All I got was the sound of the school bell and these 5 people trying to crowd me. Bad idea. I pushed through their little barricade suddenly, surprising them. Probably because I looked tiny.

"What are yo-" I shushed the fast boy. I felt a tug at my mind, and I quickly glared at them, and it stopped. By now it was silent, no more kids around, but I kept myself planted.

I could hear... footsteps.

"Listen. Everyone should be in class by now, but someone is still walking around." I turned in the general direction of the footsteps.

"I don't hear anything." Wally whined, obviously feeling excluded.

"I do." Connor muttered. "Sounds like 5 or 6 people, all wearing heavy boots." I had a bad feeling in my gut.

"And they're walking over here." I whispered, taking off my backpack and handing it to them. "Be careful with it." I said, and signaled for them to be quiet. I snuck along the right side of the wall, peeking around the corner. My heart stopped at what I saw. 5 skeleton warriors, dressed to look like security guards, walking straight towards us. One saw me and reached into its shirt and threw something at my head, making me jerk back as something flew by my head and hit the tool shed by the track. I stared in shock as I realized it was a rib bone. They were exactly like how Percy described.

I quickly turned and ran towards the shocked group of teens, who were in fighting positions. The first one to come around the corner walked straight towards the rib, snatching it and walked over to me, popping the bone back into place. It pulled a gun from the holster it was wearing, aiming it at me just as the others came around the corner.

I blanked for a split second as it fired the gun, but Connor quickly stepped in front of us, stopping the bullet.

This brought me back as I brought my fingers to my lips and whistled as loudly and for as long as I possibly could, thoroughly startling them.

I took off my skull ring, stepping forward as it turned into a sword, and got into a stance and waited for Mrs. O'leary as they continued to step forward, getting ready to attack again.

The dumpsters to the side were thrown aside to make enough room for her to step through. Seeing me, she barked loudly, and ran over to me, wagging her tail.

I held up my hand to stop her, and she did, although I had to step back to avoid getting knocked over still.

Before I could decide whether I should take Mrs. O'leary and try to get us out of here on foot or just shadow-travel us all away, the warriors started firing at us. I knew that once they ran out of bullets, they would either charge or start throwing ribs again.

I lifted my sword to block the bullets at the same time Connor got in front of half of his friends, the rest behind me. Before I could stop a single bullet, however, Mrs. O'leary stepped in front of all of us, making a shot of anxiety shoot through me. If the bullets were made of celestial bronze or anything similar, she would die.

Luckily they just fell off of her. Once they ran out, they paused for a moment, deciding the best course of action to kill me, and probably the rest of the little team behind me.

I took this time to jump on my hellhound, kicking her into a run. She fearlessly sprinted at them, all while I carefully stood up on her back, raising my sword and getting ready to drop down.

They were in battle positions, ready to brawl. I rolled my eyes, quickly swinging down from the furry creature's backside and swung my sword, while I saw out of the corner of my eye Mrs. O'leary bite the whole of one of the warrior's upper body, shaking it roughly while knocking down 2 others, quickly stepping on top of them.

My attention was brought back when I narrowly avoided getting stabbed by a rib. So they were treating them like knives now, alright.

Quickly slashing the other one, I took a moment to see how fast they would regenerate. Mrs. O'leary had easily scattered the bones of 3 of the enemies, and the bones of the ones I slashed down were starting to slowly move towards one another. Annoyed, I lazily kicked them away.

I heard footsteps behind me, and I took a quick glance behind me to confirm my thoughts that it was just the Megan squad.

I started looking through the pockets of the fake uniforms they were wearing, the one I first looked through having a head band in a plastic bag.

"Hey! That's mine!" Megan called, quickly coming in to grab it.

"Figures. Bet they all have something that you guys would recognize." I muttered. I reached over to the next one, pausing to read the unusual tag. It has the english version up top, but right below it, in the ancient greek I can easily read, it says this:

TRIUMVIRATE HOLDINGS

A little spooked, I just start digging through the pockets, quickly finding a pair of strange goggles. I continued looking through the other ones. However, in one, there is a lock of hair. I hold it up to the sunlight.

"Danarious you weird fuck." I mutter to myself. Who else could have gotten that close to me when I was sleeping? And I never would have let him get close to me with scissors awake. Must've been some weird insurance in case it seemed like I was getting in the way.

Don't know what I did, but ok. Disappointed but not surprised.

"Is that hair?" Artemis asked with a disgusted look on her face.

"No, I think it's the declaration of indepen- Of course it's hair!" I replied as sarcastically as I could. I rolled my eyes.

Glancing over, I saw that Mrs. O'leary was being inspected by Gills. However, she seemed to enjoy the attention, nudging her giant head under his arm as her way of being asked to be pet. I look around, and start to reach for my backpack when I see it. Opening my backpack, Caty quickly hops out. I grin. She's so cute.

The bones are moving at a snails pace closer together. Frowning, I quickly scoop up the bones as fast as possible. Once I'm done, I turn to Mrs. O'leary, ready to get out of here. Caty climbs up my leg and onto my shoulder.

The strange teens stare at me, obviously waiting for me to finish. Wally is petting my hellhound.

"What do you want." I ask, eager to go to a nice, secluded area to dump these bones into the earth.

"What were those beings?" Kaldur asked. I looked at him for a moment, then answered.

"The best hunters on Earth." He narrowed his eyes, but just as he spoke his first word, it happened.

A sharp ringing went through my ears, making me fold and I dropped to the ground, clutching my ears despite it not doing anything. I felt something wet and slimy on the back of my head, and I faintly recognized it as Mrs. O'leary's tongue. After a moment of ringing, it quieted down some, just enough to hear bits of what they were saying.

"-ong with him?"

"There's... ringing in hi..."

It got louder for a split second, then went back to that in-between point.

"What is that?!" Someone shouted, but I didn't bother to look around. I stayed curled up in a ball. I heard Mrs. O'leary growled and her thudding-probably jumping-around, barking loudly.

Quite suddenly my back pack was ripped from my arm, causing me to get up. Since I was not prepared, I instantly fell to the ground. I did catch a glimpse of what took my bag. A harpy. Great.

Swiftly flying away-with Mrs. O'leary quickly stomping after it-I realized it would be useless because it was already gone. The ringing wasn't gone. Slowly, however, it came to a stop. 

I don't know how long my ears were ringing, but these weird teens were crowding me. I quickly stood up, trying to get a grip back on my senses. I snapped my fingers around each ear to make sure my hearing wasn't damaged.

"What was that?" Megan asked, trying to be nice. I glanced at her, but quickly sighed.

"The ringing isn't something you should be concerned with," Although it meant something disastrous just happened to someone I was close to. "but what we should be worrying about is when those skeletons are coming back and why whoever brought them back wants you guys dead." They looked slightly confused by this.

I looked around. No mortals seemed to be outside yet, as it is still early in the morning. Just when I think no one else is outside, I see someone sitting under the bleachers in the distance. They appear to be looking in this direction, but I couldn't be sure if they were clearsighted, a demigod, a regular mortal, or maybe even a satyr or something of the sort looking for demigods.

Either way, I swiftly whip out my phone and text Jules.

"Who did you just talk to?" Artemis questions. 

"My chauffeur. Now, would you like to take me to your lair or should I try to find a place that would be safe for everyone when they try to hunt us down again?" They looked at each other.

"Our base is underground. You won't be able to get to it from the surface." A lie. Terrible liars. "So you should probably text your friend and tell him never mind." I rolled my eyes, smirking.

"Underground? I'm sure we could figure something out." Just as I said this, there was the sound of several cars honking, and the sound of tires screeching. Always a fast one. I motion for them to follow me, and they do.

"Once we are underground, I would like you to give me directions." I glanced at them out of the corner of my eye.

I plan on using geokinesis to safely make a road to travel to their hideout. After all, what were they gonna do to me if they find out I can do all this? They already know about my ability to teleport, I'm not gonna join them, and they can't lock me up without me eventually escaping. I haven't done anything dangerous either, and they don't seem the type to judge people on their powers.

Whatever.

They looked at me strangely, but when I led them to a van that I had requested Jules bring, they got weird about it.

"Why should we trust you?" Connor finally spoke. "Let alone go with you into some creepy van." I rolled my eyes.

"I'm the only one out of all of us that knows how to stop those things and i'm one of their targets as well, so it would be in our favor to work together." I pulled the door to the van open, gesturing for them to get in. "And theres a lot of us so, van." Kaldur was the one to first get in.

"Know that we can overpower you easily, and if you try anything, it will not end in your favor." He warned, to which I rolled my eyes and they all climbed in. Shutting the door, I hopped in shotgun.

"Be sure to be buckled in or hold onto something tight. He likes to go fast." I said as I buckled in.

"Go somewhere where we have easy access to the earth." I ordered. He had a hat on, and quite a bit of mist to make him look how he was when he was human.

I was thrown back in my seat slightly as he sped forward, quickly driving out of town, taking a detour off the main road and into a small clearing. I closed my eyes, and visualized the earth opening up and creating a tunnel for us to drive through. I held out my hands, and it seemed to help.

I heard a few of them gasp. I kept my eyes closed, though. I smirked.

"Directions?" I asked as Jules drove right into the earth.

"Uh, turn around back towards the town and go straight for a mile." I heard Megan say in amazement. I closed the opening to the tunnel and pushed the earth around to allow for us to easily drive through. 

20 minutes later, they said we were just about there.

"Jules, slow down. Don't wanna surprise anyone that might be there." I was referring to stoplight, of course.

I felt a huge empty space in the earth, and assumed that was the hideout. I turned the tunnel so it was like a drive through window, then opened a huge entry way, showing off the base. I heard an alarm going off in the base, and more gasps. I opened my eyes to see a mostly empty room, flooded with red lights, with a giant funnel-looking thing in the middle, focusing on a platform. to the side was these other tunnels, but they stopped short and didn't lead anywhere. At the other side of the room was a doorway to another room. 

Standing in the center of this room was a couple weird people. Due to the lack of windows to the van, all the people in the room could see was me.

There was a blonde lady, stoplight(I know his name is robin, I just like to call him that), some red guy, and the dark knight himself. I slowly opened the door, but that didn't seem to make them any less tense than they were. They were, of course, in a battle stance.

"Hey. They're in the back." They seemed to be waiting for me to do something, so I slowly got out of the van, and walked over to the door. I slowly opened the door, since any fast movements might make them do something panicky.

Artemis stepped out first. She glared at me. "You could have said we were here." I shrugged.

"I'm not the one who has a secret hideout." She glared at me harder, then stepped aside for her friends.

I realized they didn't have a way to get off this ledge, so I quickly made them a set of stairs for easier access to the ground. I stepped down after all of them, taking note on how Kaldur immediately went to talk to the others. They went out of battle mode, but were still tense. 

After we were all down, I shouted my thanks to Jules, and closed up the top. He has his own geokinesis, but only enough to get back to the underworld. 

I awkwardly stood there, watching as they grouped together away from me, leaving me out in the open. The lights were just bright enough for me to not be able to shadow travel, and Artemis probably still had her flashlight.

I gave a small wave, suddenly feeling nervous. They could attack. This was a bad idea. Who cares if they're supposed to be heroes. They could still try to sell me or something.

"Hey. I'm Nico. And we're being hunted."


	4. Chapter 4

Just now realized- I never said where Caty wEnT UhhhH

She hopped on his BacK as they got in the CaR

SleeEpIng In MegAn's LaP

N I C O

No one said anything for a moment, before Batman walked over to me, giving off an intimidating aura that triggered that one flight or fight instinct. I cringed slightly, taking a step back as he got close. He saw that and stopped once he was close enough.

"Why are you being chased?" He asked.

"Don't know. Probably a threat to someone. They threatened that person too, though. If that helps." I pointed at the people I traveled with.

"You have abilities." He stated.

"Yup." I popped the p, looking to the side, trying to show it was obvious.

"What are they?" He demanded. I scowled at them.

"I can shadow travel, and I can move the earth." That was all they were gonna get. Maybe if he was a bit nicer he would have included the whole dead people thing.

"What is 'shadow travel'?" Wow. Rude. Came here for help(protection) not an interrogation.

I glared at him. He was unfazed. "Teleporting through shadows." I could see Artemis roll her eyes.

"He's notorious for being difficult, it seems." I narrowed my eyes at her.

"Hey. If I hadn't been there you guys would have either been killed or chased all around town." I pointed an accusatory finger at her for emphasis.

"Enough. What attacked you?" The dark knight demanded.

"Skeleton warriors. Grown from... a special kind of teeth. Weird shit. Once they get a scent, they never lose it. Pretty much immortal. After you bring them down, they just reform. Annoying more than anything."

"How do you know all this?"

"My cousin and... a few... other people... were being chased by them." Thinking about that old war brought a bad taste to my mouth. Reminded me of why Luke was able to start a war. All because of those people Dan was helping. Wait... If Dan worked for Triumvirate Holdings, and they got my hair from them.

He asked me something, I ignored it as I thought of this, they repeated, I ignored them, they started to repeat aga-

"Who did you guys piss off in Triumvirate Holdings?" They went silent.

"How did you know about that?" Batman asked (more like growled).

"I'm not stupid. They've been causing havoc for my... family... for years." Connor gave an angry huff as he walked closer.

"Enough with all these pauses. Just tell us the truth."

"I have told you guys the truth."

"No, you're not! Stop lying!" I glared at him.

"I'm not lying about anything." He groaned, storming off into the other room.

This was getting annoying.

"Ok. I have a proposal for you guys. I stay here, and protect you when they show up-which I guarantee they will-and make sure you guys don't get yourselves killed, or I can leave, and you guys can either get killed or run around for a very long time, wondering who it was that sent them. Now, do you guys want to keep asking me questions or leave me here so I can plan a counterattack for those monsters?" I took a breath, holding my hands out, lowering and raising them as I laid out the options. I raised my eyebrows, waiting for an answer.

They did not look happy. And I understand that. I had just threatened them. But I couldn't answer their questions.

Batman growled before giving me his answer.

"Fine. But someone will be with you at all times to make sure you don't do anything. M'gan, your up first." I rolled my eyes, but immediately dropped to the ground, getting comfortable. I could tell they were annoyed because I heard Artemis scoff at me. I ignored her and closed my eyes, trying to concentrate. If Hazel and I could move the earth around, shouldn't we also be able to sense things through the ground?

Eventually I either blocked them out or they went silent, because I couldn't hear them anymore. At first it was like looking for tunnels, but I could only get the layout of this room. Then the next, then eventually the entire mountain. I didn't know what was in these rooms, only that there was no earth in certain spots.

I focused on what was moving on the ground on top of the mounta-

"Ah!" I quickly sat up, holding my head. Wayy too much at once. Nope.

"What's wrong?" I heard what I assumed to be Megan ask.

"I tried to do a search too wide." I felt like a little kid not getting what I wanted when I said this. Might've been just me, but I sounded like a spoiled brat.

"Uh, pardon me, but what do you mean by that?" I glanced at her.

"I'm trying to see if I can sense the warriors moving and coming for us. The only way to do that is to either dig or swim. Wanna be prepared." I felt silly for easily telling this to her, she probably wouldn't even understand.

"Is there anyplace for me to rest?" After using so much power I was exhausted. She nodded, and got up from her crouched position. I stood up as well, obviously assuming that her nod meant I could sleep somewhere else.

I was correct, if the next she said was not a lie.

"We should have a few guest rooms." (Probably just confused y'all)

I nodded, and she started walking down a hall and we eventually wound up at a door. She opened it to reveal,  
A room. A perfectly normal bedroom.

"You can stay here for now." I nodded once again.

She left the room soon after, and I could only assume they had cameras in here.

I got comfortable on top of the bed, ignoring the blankets. If there was an attack, I would need to get up quickly.

I soon fell asleep, but woke up later when someone opened the door to the room.

I could hear faint footsteps, they were trying to be quiet. I sat up and turned to see who it was. It was Megan. She was holding my cat.

"What is it?" I asked, slightly annoyed that she woke me up.

"Uh, sorry for waking you. I just wanted to put your cat in your room. Everyone's about to go to sleep, and we don't really have a place to put her." I nodded, waiting for her to leave after setting down my cat.

"Goodnight." She said with a small wave. I rolled my eyes and waved weakly back.

She soon left. Caty walked over and laid right next to my stomach, purring. I pet her, easily falling back asleep.

In the morning, I woke up to silence. Sitting up, I wiped my eyes, looking around. Remembering that I was underground and being hunted, I slowly moved to the ground, closing my eyes to check and see if the warriors were moving towards us. Thankfully, I didn't sense anything human-sized tunneling through the ground, although I was too inexperienced with this ground thing to bother checking the surface.

Standing up, I notice Caty is staring at me from the bed. I walk forward and pick her up.

She purrs as I rub her chin and head for the door.

Opening it, I see nothing but more doors and two directions for me to go in. Touching the stone wall, I find the path that leads to more rooms, including the big room I lead us to.

Silently moving through the halls, double-checking the path each time a hall branched off.

Eventually I heard voices, both feminine and masculine. One of the masculine voices had a very annoying tone to it, so I assumed it was Wally.

"...id you get on him?" The voice became more clear as I got closer, but I still didn't get the first part of the sentence. Assuming they were talking about me, I stayed just out of view, hiding around a corner.

"He's very sad. Angry, but overwhelmingly sad." My eyes widened as I realized it was Megan, and she was able to read my emotions like a book. Damn. "When he was taking a nap, I tried taking a closer look at what happened. I caught a glimpse of him opening a door and seeing two people, er-uh, making out, but then he woke up to the sound of me in his room." Feeling a spark of anger at that sentence, I felt myself itching to step in and yell at her. Before I could, she spoke. Curiosity kept me in place.

"I think... He was maybe dating that girl, and he caught her cheating on her. I know I'm not supposed to do stuff like that, but he just felt so sad, I just wanted to help." My anger slipped right out from under me. I rolled my eyes, stepping into the room, which I found to be a kitchen.

"She wasn't my girlfriend." Ignoring the flinch everyone gave, and the look of worry, like they thought I would backhand them all, I sat down on the couch, getting comfortable. On my way, I spotted Artemis eating half a pomegranate. One half in her hand, one on the table. Nonchalantly, I swiped the half. She stared, surprised at my silent entry. Or at my lack of anger.

"I do ask that you all keep doing stuff like that. Makes it easier to want to leave you guys behind." Eating multiple seeds at a time with one hand, petting Caty with the other.

"Wh-" Connor started, ready to get mad at me. I cut him off.

"They haven't started digging in the mountain yet, but that doesn't mean they're not gonna come by water or are already on the surface of the mountain." I went on with my report, immediately ignoring the conversation that would've happened if I hadn't.

Leaning down, I touched the ground-not with the hand I was eating the seeds with, that would be disgusting-and double checked that they weren't coming yet. Nothing, although I felt a strange object wayy down below the surface, but above us. Concentrating, I tugged at the object, finding it to have the earth's metals still in it.

I could feel the strange looks I was getting, but I closed my eyes. They might have even said something to me, but I was too focused to care. The object got closer. Closer, closer, so close-

"OW!" Wally shouted, followed by the sound of something hard hitting the ground. Standing up, I walked over to it, finding it covered in tough rock. Concentrating a bit more, I was able to make the rock fall away and reveal the object.

A few seconds pass, and I find that I am holding a realllyyy old pocket watch.

"What is that?" Connor asked. Glancing up at him, I stared at him as if he was only a few weeks old.

"It's a vintage pocket watch. Have you honestly never seen a pocket watch? Or even heard of one?" I said, mostly sarcastically. He slowly nodded. I raised an eyebrow.

Putting a hand on his arm, I did a check on what his soul looked like. Just a glimpse at what made it up.

What I found confused me. It was half human, half something else. I had only seen human souls before.

He almost instantly yanked his hand away.

"Do not do that!" He yelled at me. I got slightly irritated. So his friend could look at one of my worst memories but I wasn't allowed to see what his soul is made of?

"Your soul is... different. Younger. Why?" Silence. While they scrambled for an answer, Caty clawed at my leg, her sharp claws instantly bringing small pain. Looking down, I saw her meowing at me. Confused, I stared at her for a moment.

Suddenly, I dropped myself to the floor, trying to concentrate. I heard the others say something, all of them trying to get my attention.

"Shut up!" I yelled aggressively. I tried to feel an area in the mountain where they were coming from, but felt none. Confused, I let out a frustrated growl. Looking around anywhere else, I barely checked to see if they had come under us. As I tried to concentrate on the surface of the mountain, a sharp, slowly growing pain in my head increased as I tried to search the surface.

I was suddenly yanked up, opening my eyes to see Connor yelling at me. My head still hurt like hell, and I was now thoroughly drained from that little trip through the earth's surface, He said something to me, but I just glared at him. Slowly, I was able to hear the sound of fighting behind me, and Connor dragging me behind the counter, just as a rib bone hit the wall above us.

My eyes widened as I realized what had happened. Touching the floor, feeling a spike of pain while doing so, I was able to feel where in the room someone was standing.

"Tell your friends to get as close to the walls as possible, I'm going to create a pit in the center of the room." I muttered, still a little dizzy. Thankfully, he heard me, and paused for a moment, looking over the counter and, I assume, made eye contact and made hand gestures or something, because he didn't say anything.

Still touching the ground, I felt half the figures suddenly hug the walls, and I quickly stood up and turned the corner, stomping my foot down on the ground, trying to force the ground to shake and create a pit.

Thankfully, it did. A pit straight down to the underworld appeared. I could tell it did because I could see a little pin prick at the bottom, with the familiar glow of the fields of asphodel.

I got 3 of them down, but 2 weren't close enough. I could see one of the teens start to step back, but I quickly yelled at them.

"Do not move! I can't save you if you fall down there." I yelled, starting to feel extremely tired. The warriors apparently saw me as more of a threat to their purpose than completing their purpose, because one started to work its way around the pit, and the other reaching into their jacket. Crouching down I pulled an imperial gold dagger out of my booth and threw it at the one aiming to chuck their rib at me.

Leaning over to the shadows under the counter, I pulled my sword out from the dark depths.

The warrior was only a few feet away from me, pausing only to break its left arm off at the shoulder, and watched as it straighten out into what looked like a bone sword. I glared at it, but stood up.

"This is so not the time or place to be having a sword fight." I growled. I was near exhausted. Stepping back a bit, I checked my pockets and belt for any unicorn draught. Luckily I found a flask of it, and quickly took a few big gulps, watching as the warrior slowly stepped back. I couldn't see the other warrior on the ground anymore, but the kid flash guy was standing away from the wall, looking impressed with himself. I assumed he knocked it into the pit.

With my new found strength, I lunged at the warrior, quickly trying to slash him, blocked. Swing from the enemy, I was barely able to dodge.

I backed him up towards the pit, and when he was close enough I swung, got blocked, and immediately kicked him into the pit.

I watched him fall back, and had a moment of smug success. Then I realized I was also falling forward as well. A brief moment of panic hit me, but then I was caught. Looking up, I saw that Megan had caught me.

"Thank you. You were very helpful." She said with a friendly smile.

"Yeah, yeah. Woohoo. We did it." I did a bit of jazz hands, and they all stared at me like I grew a second head. I looked at them, confused, and mustard pointed at my right hand. Glancing over, I had another, although a bit longer, moment of panic.

"Woah! Never been conscious while thats happening." I muttered, staring at my hand. I looked at them, meeting their surprised eyes. "I believe I need to go to your infirmary." I managed before I stumbled back, the adrenaline starting to ware off.

Waking up was weird.

It had been awhile since the last time I knocked myself out.

I slowly became aware of the sound of a tv droning on and on.

Opening my eyes and looking around, I noticed the familiar sight of an infirmary. Obviously I helped out with Will in the camps infirmary.

I also soon noticed the lights were off and Megan and Connor were asleep nearby on a nearby couch, apparently falling asleep watching something.

Now more awake, I looked to see what was on the tv. It looked like the news, but I had missed the majority of what was going on.

A latino woman in a skirt suit and a balding man in a similar suit were on, talking about how cute some puppy was. Oh yeah, there was a puppy in between them. Looked like a saint Bernard. Adorable.

"Haha! Isn't he just the cutest thing, Marisha?"

"Certainly Tom."

After that they made their way back to their desk from their standing position.

"Anyway, on to more startling news. A body was found on the soon to be former estate of fallen from grace actor Tristan McLean. The specific details haven't been released yet, but we do know generally what happened. His daughter, Piper McLean, went on a road trip for a few days and came back with a dead body. Mr. McLean claims that the body was Jason Grace, the ex-boyfriend of his daughter, Piper. The McLeans have been ruled out as the killers, although they are still being questioned. More on this tomorrow." The man, Tom, quickly explained. I felt numb. So that was why my ears were ringing...

"Terrible news, Tom. The family of Mr. Grace have my sympathy." No we don't. Liar. "Anyway, violent protests have been occurring once again by the Palestinians about something the Israelis did..." The woman, Marisha, said in a fake tone of voice.

I looked down at my hands. I punched him.

The last encounter we had was rotten. He was my best friend. Tears blurred my vision. My best friend. He's dead. I'll never see him in this world again.

He'll never feel real sun on his face again. He would stay in Elysium. I know he would. That's what he would do.

He's still so young. He was so young.

Hot tears ran down my face as I glared at the tv. I vaguely acknowledged Megan waking up. I kept glaring at the screen. The man and woman were still talking. They didn't care that someone that saved everyone had just died, probably for them once again.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Megan gently shake Connor awake, and she got up to get the remote and I assume turn the tv off.

"Don't." I growled, keeping my eyes on them.

I suddenly got up, flinging the sheets off of my body and easily hopping down.

I saw a pile of my things on a nearby chair. My jacket with my sword resting against the chair.

I put on my jacket with ease, but quickly whipped out my phone that miraculously still has close to full battery. I did power it down, though.

After a minute of the device coming back to life, I quickly scanned my contacts for someone that I once would have considered my friend.

Ringing. Ringing. Ri-

"Hello?" A sad voice said.

"Piper." I said, my voice emotionless.

"Nico. I assume you heard about what happened to Jason." She sniffled at the name.

"Yes. It is all over the news. Is it true?" She took a deep breath. I found myself leaning more and more on the arm of the chair, my knuckles turning white from the stress.

"Y-yes. He was-he was trying to protect us. Apollo, Meg and I. He was killed by the last unknown emperor from Triumvirate Holdings. Caligula." I felt more hot tears rolling down my cheeks.

"Thank you for telling me." I was about to hang up, but she spoke before I could.

"Wait! Nico. I don't know why he didn't tell you about... What happened, but he was your friend. Your best friend." Tears streamed down my face.

"If he was my friend, he would have told me what Will was doing behind my back for 6 months!" I shouted, venom in my voice.

"Nick, please listen-" she was sobbing. I hung up.

I put the phone in my pocket. I grabbed my sword.

I glanced back slightly at the awkward Megan and Connor.

"I have to go for awhile. Would you be willing to watch my cat for a while?" She nodded silently. I gave a small head nod as confirmation, then left the room.

Oh, Caligula had just made a terrible mistake.

Sorry if this chapter is short!  
I want to keep going but this seems like the perfect time to stop  
I'm working on part 5 and hopefully it'll be out by the end of May.  
Hopefully.

Thank you guys for voting and commenting! It really means a lot!

Also I'm at school rn on my phone so I can't really check for spelling mistakes and things like that, so sorry.  
Hope you enjoy anyway!

Heyy 

So

Here I am

Sorry if you got e x ci ted

Just me

making sure 

I got no speling erors

Thanks for readinggg


	5. Chapter 5

N I C O

He was trying to fool me. I knew he was, and I made it obvious that I knew. I could see it in his eyes.

He was trying to buy himself some time, but he knew I would be on him before anyone could save him from me. There was no hope for him.

This disgusting creature had been kidnapping and shipping children to one of the Triumvirate's remote buildings so that they could be brainwashed and used. Didn't matter that they were mortal. Didn't matter that they were children. Didn't matter that the majority of them would resist and be murdered.

He was a satyr, disguised as a mortal that owned a small car dealership.

It was just a front, obviously.

"P-please. I was forced to. The emperors-they said they needed more people, and that I had to do it. I never wanted to, but they-they threatened to kill me and destroy my business. I worked so hard making an environment-friendly car dealership. Please. I can make things better, I promise. I-" I held up my hand. He stopped.

I turned towards my helpers. I had raised a few skeletons.

"You know what to do with him."

They did. I had a specific way of dealing with problems like him.

Since he could feel pain, he was tranquilized and then killed quickly. Quick, clean, and painless.

I may have people killed, but I make sure they don't suffer. If I did, that would be truly monstrous.

I walked away, the information I needed was in his office. The skeletons would make sure everything is cleaned up. I got a cheap coffin, too. Everyone deserves a proper funeral.

I unlocked the door with the stolen key and quickly went over to the over-locked filing cabinet.

Luckily I stole the keys.

Rifling through the paper work, I heard almost silent footsteps.

Quickening my search, I eventually find a suspicious folder.

While everything in here was marked with things that sounded car related, this particular folder, that had slightly less paperwork than the others, was marked 'Kaly's private academy for the athletically gifted'. Probably the training camp they forced those kids to attend.

I grabbed the folder, double checking that it was the only unusual one. Out was.

Turning around, I noticed that whoever was trying to find me still hasn't checked in here. I shadow traveled to the outside, just around the back.

I saw that my small horde of 8 skeletons had been halved to 4. I heard shouting and then fighting. Rolling my eyes, I gestured to my stolen van.

I guess it was fate that he was only the 2nd person in my search, and had a van perfect for moving coffins around.

Hopping in the back with 2 of the skeletons, I tell Jules to go fast. As soon as I got 100 ft away, I could feel my control over the remaining dead it off my range dwindle and come to a stop.

After driving around for an hour, with Jules making sure we weren't being followed, the massive van came to a stop.

Opening the doors, I step out first and look around. We were in the middle of nowhere, the only thing around were a few trees. I gestured for the skeletons to follow me.

Giving them a moment to grab the coffin, I started making my way over to the prepared grave. I took off the helmet and sat at the trunk of the tree that would serve as a headstone.

The skeletons dropped him inside, and started shoving dirt over him.

"So, at funerals, your supposed to say a few words about the person. Usually good. You were a bad person. However, you did save many demigods for 37 years before the first war. Before you went with Luke. Before you went with them.  
You did terrible things. I hope your reincarnated as a tree that gets burned down." I stopped as my once calm words turned venomous at the end, and watched as they were almost done with the burial.

I sighed. "I don't know that much about if satyrs remember after they're reborn, but I hope if you do, you will know not to do shit like this." I got up, put my helmet back on, and shadow-traveled away once I was done.

My base camp was some where underground, of course. 50 feet underground, in some twisted catacombs that were long forgotten.

I made my room quite easy to follow, all I had to do was touch the wall and feel where I had placed a row of gems a few meters underground, with the occasional arrow to tell the correct direction. No one else should be able to navigate their way through the catacombs using this method, making them a maze for anyone but me-and Hazel, of course-impossible to find a correct way through. If that even makes any sense. With no light, this was also how I made my way around.

I find my room, complete with a cheap cot with a sleeping bag. I could just go to the surface for anything else.

Passing by the entrance, I wander over to one of the bodies and gently touch the bones, calling them to action.

"Please keep guard and come wake me up if anything starts coming." I tell the skeleton this every time I go to sleep.

Walking into my 'room', which is a hollowed out room-which surprisingly had a rotting wooden door-that appeared to be another room for bodies but whoever was in charge of filling this place up either forgot about it, it was some twisted office, or they never got the chance.

Ignoring the twisted office bit and how I was now using this room for a twisted bedroom, I take the helmet off, give it a little tap of my fingers to a melody the campers sang around the campfire at camp, and watch with dead eyes as it turns into a silver locket in my hands. I still haven't dared to open it.

Scanning the room, I notice not a thing is out of place. I always clean things up, so I wouldn't have to memorize how I left it so I could tell if someone was rummaging through my things.

I slid into the sleeping bag, shivering at my inability to generate enough body heat in time to fall asleep within the hour, frowning at the reminder on how cold it gets down here.

Covering myself completely, I close my eyes and try to ignore the instinct to shiver. It works, until the cold overpowers my will over my body.

Eventually I fall asleep, and eventually I wake up. There is no light. Touching the wall to right myself. I do a quick check of the area, flinching harshly when I overestimate my ability to 'see' underground.

Still, there is no one in the nearby catacombs. I can still sense the presence of the skeleton outside. Always amazed me how it maintained itself while I was asleep.

Deciding it was time to try to eat something, I walk out of my 'bedroom' after I roll up the sleeping bag and tidy anything that got even slightly messy up.

I released the skeleton, which I commanded to first return to where I summoned it so it wouldn't simply clatter to the ground. It obeys, and I shadow travel to the surface, in the city that is slowly growing on me. Gotham. Home of the bad guys.

Clutching the locket like a cross, I stalk my way through the city, being careful to stick to the shadows.

I find a safe-way and quickly make my way inside. Easy. The workers here are always oblivious. Probably because they are mostly teens who chose the store to be their first job. I wince at the thought.

They don't notice me, of course.

Abusing my powers a little, I make the lights in my immediate vicinity start to dim so it would be easier to leave.

The store was quite noisy today. I could hear the shouts and obnoxious laughter of a group of teens all the way across the store. Squawking and just being plain annoying.

Heading straight for the deli, I grabbed a few sandwiches and a couple bottles of water. Along the way I picked up a basket to carry my things in.

Walking to the cashier, I scanned my things, then made sure to look her in the eyes as I snapped my fingers.

"You bought these things yourself. You decided to have a few guests over at your home, but realized you didn't have enough supplies. You quickly went to the store and got these things yourself." She nodded, in a daze. I pulled a drachma out of my pocket.

"Hold out your hand." She did. I placed it into her hand. Her hand retreated. I nodded. "You found that on the street, and wanted to cash it i-" I was startled out of my focus on making the story believable when I heard my name.

"Nico? Holy-" I turned to see Wally get smacked by Artemis, while Connor, Megan, weird sunglasses guy and surprisingly Kaldur staring at me. Then they started to speed walk over to me, trying not to draw attention, but also trying to dodge the merchandise.

Turning back to the girl, I finished as fast as possible. "You wanted to cash it in. You will after work. As soon as they leave, go back to normal. You never saw me." Then I made a mad dash for the door, barely managing to grab my bag of food.

They gave surprised shouts, then quickened. I was about to make it out but then Wally made a bad decision by upping his speed and latched onto my arm, making me struggle for balance.

"Let me go!" I shouted, keeping an eye out for anyone that would see me. The clerk still looked in a daze, but the other cashiers and some shoppers were looking over.

I lifted my free arm as high as possible, snapping my fingers. A wave of magic swept through the store. The mortals looked dazed, except for the six trying to catch me.

"They're bullies from school, trying to kick the shit out of me. Call 911." I said loud and clear, and immediately they got alarmed looks on their faces, quickly pulling out their phones.

Wally let go of me as if I burned him, and the others went from a catching up-pace to a complete halt, and I used that to my advantage, making my way to the door.

Unfortunately, a store manager decided to be a hero and step in.

"What's going on here?"

I spoke first and quickly.

"I was getting food for my little sister, because my mom wasn't home and she's really hungry, and these kids from school started coming towards me, trying to catch me." I looked down, drawing on the memory on my very real very dead sister, Bianca, to help with my trick. It felt wrong using her like that, but it probably didn't feel wrong for her to leave me behind.

"They regularly bully me and my sister for being poor. I try to be quick when I'm out and about to lessen my chances of being attacked, but I guess this time I wasn't fast enough." I could feel the silent looks of horror on their faces.

"S-sir, that isn't true. We-we were just trying to-to talk to him about a school assignment." Wally floundered to make up an excuse, but he was nowhere near as good a liar as me. Looking up at the manager with a sad look, tears in the corners of my eyes to help, I saw him glaring at the six sidekicks trying to hunt me down.

"You six, I'd like to have a talk with you. Call your parents and have a talk. You can go." He said this last bit to me, and I gave him my thanks and dropped a drachma into his pocket as I left. I looked back, guilty that they would undoubtedly get in trouble for the story I created, but kept going forward.

I couldn't get caught with Caligula still breathing. He killed my friends. I will pull all my tricks if I have to.

I glided forwards, sticking as close to the shadows as I could, holding the locket around my neck like a holy symbol once again. I walked over to the park once again. There was always the chance those teens could find me here again, but I went to the least populated area, away from sight and away from people.

I found a nice place in the small area to rest. I stayed in the darkest bits, kicking away the twigs and leaves in the way of a decent seat.

Looking through the bag for what sandwich I wanted, I quickly unwrapped it and dug in, taking sips of water every once and a while.

I kept an eye out the entire time. I could see a bunch of kids playing soccer in the field a ways away, with a few parents on the nearby benches keeping watch.

I finished my meal, making sure my energy levels were at max before I shadow-traveled back into my base in the catacombs. Putting my hand on the dirt ground, I checked to make sure no one had entered and disturbed my temporary camp. No one there.

Opening the locket, I could feel it morph into the now familiar shape of a helmet that fit my head perfectly. I stared blankly at it as I thought. Better than staring off into the distance.

Tonight I was going to do a bigger raid on one of the triumvirate warehouse/lab buildings where they stored and produced both mythological weapons and mortal products. I plan to raise several undead from the cemeteries and any unmarked graves in Gotham, where this building is. After gathering them around the building, I'm gonna clear out anyone alive inside, bring them to me, then burn the place down. 

I prepared myself for the inevitable deaths that I would cause. No-they did this to themselves. The only reason I would dispose of them would be they were a horrible person that had no chance of escaping the fields of punishment.

This would happen tonight, though. I willed the helmet to become a locket once again, and decided to sleep off any doubt.

I only slept for a few hours, of course. 

But it was enough.

I opened my eyes to complete darkness. I set my hand immediately to the dirt, checking to see and make sure nothing has changed down here. 

Checking to make sure the locket was still around my neck, I shadow-traveled to the surface, appearing behind a tree. I looked around. No one around, and it was pitch black outside. I took the locket off from around my neck and opened it. I don't know if there is some sort of picture inside. When I open it up, the circles where you would put a picture are replaced by bright light. (The equivalent to forgetting you turned your brightness up before you turn on your phone at night)

After barely a second of staring into the locket, it flashed into the helmet. The light did not get brighter, thankfully.

I quickly put on the helmet and shadow-traveled to a cemetery farther away, to make sure it wouldn't be obvious where I stayed. 

Looking around for any signs of mortals or living things, I knelt down and placed my hand on the ground.

When I saw nothing, I used my willpower to summon the whole graveyard from their sleep to serve me tonight. 

It was rather quiet, contrary to popular belief. Raising the speechless was always silent. The only sound was the dirt lifting up around them, the sound of the coffins opening muffled by the average 6 feet of dirt.

Once they stood up, they waited where they were, listening for a demand.

It resembled the fields in the underworld quite a bit, except for them being mostly skeletal.

I waited until I was certain everyone was raised, then slowly stood up.

"You all will make your way down 3 blocks straight, then turn left, where there will be a road to a closed off building. You will enter the grounds any way necessary, defeating anyone who crosses you. Do not kill any mortals. Bring them to me. There is an abandoned building on the corner where you turn left. If you go inside, there will be multiple containers of gasoline. As you go through the building, pour the gasoline all throughout the building." They could sense me from far away. I was light a beacon of death. 

They slowly started walking when I didn't continue. Nodding to myself, I went on to the cemetery on the opposite side of the triumvirate building. I did the same to this one, gathering a small army of around 300-400 undead. Don't ever know how much i'll need. I don't wanna have this be a close call.

Once I finished, I shadow-traveled to the rooftop that had the clearest view of this happening. Checking my pocket, I made sure I had all my matches that I stole. I had 2 big boxes of 200 matches each.

I crouched down and watched over the ledge as the army of undead slowly worked there way in through the wall surrounding the property, alarms soon ringing but after a few minutes of undead eventually forcing their inside the building, no police or anything showed up.

I sat down all the way eventually, pulling my knees up to my chest and burying the bottom half of my face into my legs as I watched. I fiddled with my sleeves, nervous.

All of a sudden, I could see a red blob appear behind the building, away from the conflict. I rolled my eyes. They would be brought up to me, that's for sure.

I watched the scene play out for about half an hour, waiting for the fighting to stop. After a while it did, and I watched as many undead led the familiar teens and 3 other people into the building. After a moment I stood up, walking over to the roof door.

I opened it up and saw darkness. Typical. Undead never turn on the lights.

I walked along the walls to the light switch, then sat down and waited.

Luckily they weren't there to see me fumbling around in the dark for the light switch. After maybe half a minute of sitting, the door opened and the mortals were led in, each bound and gagged.

I didn't look them in the eyes, looking down and twiddling my thumbs. When I heard the door close I looked up.

Even out of the corner of my eye I could see the teens glaring at me. I stepped forward towards the unknown 3.

2 of them looked like scientists, the last looking like a guard.

I started with the guard.

"Tell me your species and your role in that building." He looked me in the eyes, obviously at the least hearing the rumors of the son of Hades. Or the assumtion.

"I-I'm supposed to make sure nothing got through. Obviously I failed. I have a family. I have a wife and 3 kids, a beautiful little girl and 2 boys. They-they wouldn't have anyone to support them if I go missing." I grit my teeth.

"That wasn't what I asked." I growled. "I won't ask again. Speak."

He looked away.

"I-I'm supposed to be dead. I- I died in 1989. My kids have their own families now, and I've finally gotten back into their lives. Please- Don't-" I waved my hand, gesturing him to stop.

"You know the rules. I assume since you remember and most people don't want to leave-" I glanced at the kids. "-the better part, you were condemned to the worst part we have to offer." I looked in his eyes and felt a shot of guilt run through me. How many kids have we fought that were forced into killing innocents had that same look of desperation?

No.

Their forced actions wouldn't have been taken into consideration, only their choices.

He chose this.

He works for them.

I knew he could just barely see my eyes, but I glared at him. He flinched, and tried to step back, but undead were behind him.

I looked to the undead behind him.

"In the room over, there is a table with 5 syringes on it. All of them have heavy sedatives in it, enough for an elephant to overdose. Use one of those on him. Make it painless. There are 5 coins as well. Put one in his mouth, then put him in one of the coffins in that room, then take as many others as you need to move his coffin back into the building." Everyone immediately started to struggle, the teens trying to free themselves to try to save him.

There is no hope for him.

The undead behind him gagged him once again, and 2 took him out of the room.

I turned to the scientists.

A young man and an old woman. The old woman held herself proud and glared at me.

I stood right in her face, trying to intimidate her.

It seemed to work, since she glanced around a bit and shuffled.

I pulled her gag out.

"Species and role."

"I'm an amazon. I design weapons." She gave a weak grin. "I'm the one who came up with the idea for backbiter. The kid could barely keep his promises in the end. He was a weak choice." I ignored her age and punched her in the face, making her stumble but not fall.

"He was a goddamn hero." I nodded to the undead. "I don't have to hear anymore. Have her join the man in the other room, with the same treatment." They slowly nodded, and I turned to the yound man.

He looked like he was barely any older than Percy. My attitude immediately softened, and I took my helmet off. Might be a bad move, but I don't care.

"You're a half blood, right?" I asked. He nodded. "S-son of Vulcan."

"How long have you been with them? Are you here willingly? How did you get caught up with this?"

"I've b-been with them since I was... 10? 11? I don't know. Somewhere around then. They gave me a place to stay. These- uh- things- would constantly attack me. Never stayed in one place too long. I've worked with Ms. Jana for a few years now. A-am I going to join her?" It was an awkward conversation, with him being tall as hell.

"...No. You've done nothing wrong. These people, they uh... They've hurt a lot of people." Suddenly I'm the one that can't make eye-contact. "Me and my... friends... have been 'harassed' by them for years. They've only recently revealed themselves as behind everything, and now they've... hurt a friend. That was the last straw." I looked up at him. He looked confused. I weakly held out my hand.

"Would you like to join me? I have a place to stay. I know how to avoid people. Stay undetected. Fight off any attackers. Any monsters.

After a few seconds, he nodded. He shook my hand, understanding the type of monsters I was talking about.

"Yeah. Ok." I nodded, and gestured for his restraints to be removed. I turned towards the other teens, who have been watching in shocked silence. They had varying looks of disgust, shock and horror on their faces. I kept a stone-cold face, but I internally winced.

"Remove their gags." The undead did as I asked. "What do you know about Triumvirate Holdings?" I examined their faces, but they stayed silent. None of them had the tell-tale knee-jerk reaction to the name drop.

"Ok, ok. So here's what's going to happen. I'm going to go set that building on fire, then they're gonna be dismissed. After that, we're going to disappear. I'm going to leave you guys here so you don't get lit on fire and die. You'll be found shortly, no doubt." I walked closer to them.

"Make sure this goes to show I'm stronger than all of you and not to cross me again. Although, until you do something bad, you'll not be harmed fataly." I turned towards the young half-blood, putting my helmet back on.

"You're not going to get away with this. You've just sent 2 people to die, and that's not to mention the fact that this isn't the first time!" I turned to see it was the stoplight kid.

I felt a pang of guilt once again.

"You don't know who those people are. They've ruined so many lives. They've-they've started many wars. They've killed my friends, my-" I stopped myself, grateful for the helmet, or they might have seen me cry.

"I'll be right back." I shadow-traveled to just outside the triumvirate building and quickly pulled out and lit a match, tossing it into the drying gasoline. It immediately caught fire, and I shadow-traveled back into the building where I was before.

"It's done. Let's go." I held out my hand to the man, which he took. I looked to the remaining undead. "Return to your resting place. Before you do, untie one of their bonds. They will be able to handle their friends." They immediately set into action.

I walked over to the light, shutting it off and shadow-traveling away, and to a town a few cities over. A park. Typical. I rolled my eyes.

I turned to my new companion. "So what's your name?"

Wooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaahhh 

this is lateeee

Ifff therereeesss speellllinnnnggg errrrorrrrsssss

sorryyyyy

I'llllllll fix itt latterrrr

mzkf;;;mfdk

I don't know what to name him ssksksksks

Carlos

Cecil (You guys already know where I got these first two names)

Frederick (Freddy)

Something elseee(AKA do my job for me, name hiM)

A N Y W A Y

T H I S I S G E T T I N G M O R E V O T E S T H A N I T H O U G H T

T H A N K Y O U

H A V E A G R E A T D A Y


End file.
